Stolen generation kids reunite in Alice

"That was the kitchen on the end there, and that's the servery in the middle and then that was the dining room there, on this side," says Ruby Rose (nee Braun) gesturing as though it was yesterday to the old stone buildings surrounding us.

We're at the old Telegraph Station on a steaming hot night in Alice Springs where the premiere of a new theatrical work Bungalo Song has just taken place.

This historical precinct is part of the Overland Telegraph Line, built in 1872 to relay messages between Darwin and Adelaide and now a popular tourist spot.

What is less apparent is the part it had to play in the removal of Aboriginal children from their parents, a practice that occurred for close to 60 years from the early 1900's.

The Bungalow is what the Telegraph Station became when shut down in the 1930's.

It was one of three Commonwealth institutions used to house 'half-caste' kids in the Northern Territory, beginning its life in town as a tin shed built to house Topsy Smith and her seven part-Aboriginal children who had recently arrived from Arltunga.

As more kids arrived, the Bungalow was moved to Jay Creek, and then finally to the Old Telegraph Station, where a tin dormitory was built (no longer standing) which by 1935 housed over 130 children.

Ruby Rose, now in her eighties, was one of them. The child of an Aboriginal mother and a German father, Ruby was three when she was taken from her family at Aileron Station and brought to the Bungalow where she spent close to a decade.

After being moved to Croker Island in the 1940s, she never saw her mother again.

"She was living at Ti Tree, that's where she passed away," says Ruby.

"Every tourist bus that used to come...as soon as the bus pulled up, any person getting off the bus she'd say, 'my daughter Ruby Braun on that bus?'"

Uncle Bob Randall, who now lives at Mutitjulu, is another former 'Bungalow kid'.

As a child he was forced to walk in chains for hundreds of kilometres when his family was accused of stealing cattle.

On arriving in Alice Springs, he was taken to the Bungalow, where he lived for a year before he too was moved to Croker Island.

"You tried to keep out of sight, so no-one would notice you...if you was visible you were in trouble you know!" he says, breaking into a cackle.

Like other institutions of the time, the Bungalow was noted for inadequate conditions including a scarcity of food and water, overcrowding and little in the way of education.

In 1934, the Superintendent, Mr GK Freedman, was charged and found guilty of the sexual assault of a number of girls who lived there.

But what was most significant was the breaking up of families.

Harold Furber, one of hundreds of 'bungalow kid' descendants scattered throughout Alice Springs, likens it to a cattle muster.

""This was the place...this was the holding paddock," he says.

"All our families were brought here, this is it, this is where it all began for us people in Central Australia."

In the show, Harold tells the story of his grandfather, Frank Furber, who made an impassioned plea when the Bungalow closed down and the kids were moved to institutions in other parts of the country.

"My grandfather and other families wrote letters basically protesting...about the forcible removal of children out of their birthright country," he says.

"[But] the cycle continued, I myself was then removed from the outskirts of Alice Springs at the age of four [along with his younger sister]...and sent to Croker Island and we didn't have the opportunity to meet our mother again."

Bungalow Song is a sensory mix of music, visuals and direct testimony, all paying tribute to the children who spent time in the institution, acknowledging the trauma of the experience, and giving a new generation of kids the chance to connect with their own family history.

A cast of around 35 children, many of whom are descendants of Bungalow kids, bring the story to life under the direction of key creatives Nigel Jamieson and Rachel Perkins.

Mbantua co-director Nigel Jamieson says the kids have been on an incredible journey.

"They've been unbelievable...as they've understood how important this story is to tell, and realised that people are going to come and listen to it...and a whole lot of people flying in who were actually held here as young children, they've risen to that sense of responsibility," he says.

"We hope [the show] will have a cathartic effect and give this place a different perspective in terms of what these buildlngs mean."

Bobby Randall says he feels proud to see the younger generations telling the story because it 'needs to be remembered.'

"They never thought of the love we had when we were with our families," he says.

"We were beautiful children because we had a beautiful culture [and] then we found ourselves in this institution where we were never anything but trash...it was one of our bad legislations that went terribly wrong, and we've got no idea when the effects of it will stop."

Bungalow Song is a joint production between Mbantua Festival, Central Australian Stolen Generations and Families Aboriginal Corporation and Opera Australia. The final performance is tonight at 7pm. Full festival details here...